"Ones Quest, Another's Journey"
Part 7:
"First Day At the Festival"
Cora had awakened again on her own and was down stairs eating a big breakfast at the hotel's café, while Piccolo was getting dressed in his dark clothed attire and was waiting for her to return. She returned a few hours later, her stomach groaning a bit as she walked back to the room. Piccolo could easily hear her groan as he knew that sound far too well, it was the sound of upset stomach and did that bug him like crazy the most. He got up and opened the door for her and helped her to the bed to lay down.
"Why did you have to go and do that for now?" Piccolo protested as he sat back down at the table.
"I was hungry and well, I'm not trying to eat more than a Saiya-jin and you know that, but I don't know why I've been eating like this," she replied as she slowly turned on her side.
"I hope you can fit in that dress you bought yesterday."
"I will after my stomach calms down and when it does I'll just do some laps on a track to burn as much off as I can, but for now, I'm going to rest," she said, after that came the loudest and worst belch ever heard by Piccolo's ears, he looked up at her with eyes of surprise and disgust. "Excuse me, sorry about that."
"Do you think it would be wise for me to go out and see what's going on about the festival?" Piccolo asked as he fixed his hood and vale.
"Sure, if you want and see if you can buy a good mask, so you don't have to use that vale the whole time here at the festival," she said as she rolled over, groaning as she did, to get her wallet, she handed him about $300 dollars. "You don't need to exchange the American money for British pounds, but you can if you want. There should be some money exchange places on the grounds of the festival."
"Okay, whatever you say, Cora, and I'll be back in a few hours to check on you," he said.
"Oh, wait, I got the special passes for us, don't forget these," she added as she threw his pass to him. "Wear it around your neck and never take it off and don't loose it," she said as he put the pass strap around his neck and took one of the hotel room keys with him, he walked out the door closing it slowly, so not to wake Cora.
Piccolo quickly made his way out of the hotel building and onto the streets of Dublin. A man walking by him stopped dead in his tracks at what Piccolo was dressed in, he soon smiled at him.
"If you are looking for the Medieval festival, just take this main street to your right and keep going, soon you'll find a sign that says were to go for the festival, it won't take you long," the man said.
"Thank you very much," Piccolo replied as he made his way to the festival.
It wasn't long until he found a very large open field in front of him, a sign over his head saying, Medieval Festival this way. He followed, seeing before him many, many tents in all kinds of colors, flags flying high and proud, jousting arena, archery arena, games and pony rides for the little kids, some Irish dancers practicing outside the grounds on a stage and many more wonderful things lay out before his very eyes.
He walked up to the gate, a man wearing a royal guards outfit stood next to it. "Tickets or passes please?" the man asked, Piccolo showing the pass to him, as the guard scanned it into a machine. "Enjoy your time and you won't be needing to have it rescanned," he said putting a red sticker on the plastic pass. "the sticker tells others that you are already scanned in," he said as Piccolo nodded and walked passed the gate into the festival grounds.
The sun was shinning down on the ground brightly, as a few people started coming onto the grounds for the fun of the Medieval life style and magic of it all. At every turn, there were storytellers, jesters juggling balls and playing magic tricks for the kids, painters making portraits for people on canvas, and there was plenty of merchants to sell their goods and plenty of food to go around. Everyone, almost everyone was in costume for the festival and anything and everything that could be worn at the festival was made in the most perfect detail to the style and time period of the Middle Ages or Renascence period.
Soon, he caught his eye on some masks and headed quickly over to the table were there where displayed. "Are you looking for one in particular?" a woman asked.
"I'll just look for now, I'm waiting for a lady friend of mine to get here and I think she could choose better than I can," he said to the woman with a light smile from behind the vale.
"All right then, if you find anything you like just tell me," the woman said as she went to the other side of another table and began to straighten it.
Piccolo's ears twitched as he could hear way out in the distance, a few miles away, the sound of galloping horses, their hooves carrying their riders, they must have been wearing heavy attire. He turned and looked out in front of him a young boy running and yelling.
"They're coming, make way, make way for the king," the boy cried out running past everyone, as all the people quickly moved out of the way.
Many mounted horses came galloping down the main dirt path, all of them wearing Medieval guard attire, their horses wearing heavy metal sheeted plates on their bodies to protect them and from the very front of this group of riders, the king approached. His steed being solid white, it too wearing metal on it's body to protect it, the royal man wore deep red, with lions on his chest, the crown on his head gold and full of gems, and a red dragon flew proudly on his flag as he rode swiftly past everyone, but he looked back at Piccolo and nodded to him.
"You've been noticed by the King, you are so lucky," the merchant woman said from her booth.
"Who is this King?"
"Of course he isn't a real king, everyone here is just role playing for fun. Here we do our very best to portray the wondrous times of this gone by era. You must be new to this kind of fun, but don't worry, you will learn quickly of what is around you and when you're lady friend gets here, she should be able to explain things better to you than I."
He nodded and went on his way looking about him of the festival some more. He quickly came upon two men atop a large log beam, with staffs in hand ready for a battle. He took his place around the crowd and watched as the men tried their best to keep standing. These two men were quit well build, muscles bulging everywhere and sweat dripping from them. Suddenly one of the men quickly smacked his staff into the other guy's jaw. "Unfair!" the crowed called out as the men took another try this time, staffs hitting against each other with great cracking sounds and the whooshing sounds of the air around the swift movements. Then it got faster, with every blow, until one man finally fell down to the mud below. The one that won the match stood proud and called out and just as he did, the looser came up and grabbed him and pulled him to the mud, both men wrestling to the ground a bit, they soon stopped and laughed at one another of how messy they looked and got up. The winner was awarded his prize of a very large pitcher of ale to drink all to himself. He dove his head in and drank a great amount, he came up for air and belched loudly, everyone laughed and cheered for the man.
'Disgusting,' he said to himself as he made his way from the crowd.
After a while of looking at just about everything around him of the festival, he sat at a bench and waited, he could feel that Cora was coming to the festival soon, so he had no need to go see her again at the hotel room. He looked towards the main gate and there in the purple velvet Medieval dress was Cora, she caught eye of him and ran to him, holding her dress up a bit off the dirt and mud. He got up to greet her, and just as he did, she showed him what she bought.
"I saw the masks right there and I had to get this one for you," she said, holding up a slightly feathered mask, its colors being dark blue, dark green, and black. "Put it on," she said as he very nervously took off his vale. "Look over there," she said pointing behind him. "There be fae here, more the merrier, says I." And sure enough there were people dressed up as fairies and elves of all kinds. "You will be safe here, trust me," she said with a sparkling kind of smile. He sighed and took off the hood; he then took the mask and put it on. "It looks really good on you, it matches your attire well, my lord."
"So, what shall you show me, that you may know more of than I?" Piccolo said in the best way he could of an Irish accent.
"I've kept you waiting way too long, have I?"
"No, not really."
"Well, then, lets see what other kinds of treasures we can find here," she said as she put her arm around his. She looked around a bit, as they walked, her eyes feeling quit large to the site of everything at once coming into view. "Well, you can't very well, test your strength here, they would really freak, you know." Piccolo nodding in reply as he watched a very large muscled man walk up to the mallet and slamming it to the button. The bell rang loudly as the ball hit it, the bell almost about to fall right off the top.
"For a human, that was pretty good, I'd have to say," Piccolo commented, Cora smiling up at him. "Tell, me how was your work out?"
"It was fine, boring to say the least. Everyone must have been here at the festival," she said to him, suddenly she caught her eyes on some Irish dancers up on a stage. She smiled big, from ear to ear as she heard the wonderful and very familiar pounding stepped rhythm of the dancers from River Dance that she had seen a few years back on TV.
"Go on and watch them, I'll catch up with you soon," Piccolo said as he saw her smile, it lighting up his heart from inside, but on the outside he tried to hide his caring love for her, sometimes when he felt he needed to. Cora ran to the stage and found a dry spot to stand and watch the dancers, the show had just started and it was good timing for her, that's for sure.
The sound of pounding; hard black soled shoes on the hard wood floor of the stage excited Cora's heart, causing her heart rate to sore quit high. Her ears rang with the sound of the rhythm as it exploded inside her gullet and all around her body. She felt so alive at that moment that she swore that it was better than a roller coaster than anything in the world. She tapped her feet to the beat as it got louder and louder, the music playing beautifully all around her and everyone else that watched with awe and amazement of the dancer's talents. Piccolo soon found the beat of the rhythm inviting and so interesting, after all, he had never seen some many wonderful things on such a simple and tiny seeming planet.
Once the first song ended, almost as soon as it had started, things calmed down and Cora's heart finally relaxed, but not as soon as it had, she sensed Piccolo very near. She turned around, seeing him in the furthest back row of spectators, his very tall form making it very easy for her to find him. She smiled at him lightly and motioned for him to come over, he nodded and walked over. She looked up at him like a child looking at her father, as the music played, fiddles playing perfectly as the drums began.
"Oh, hell! I can't help it!" Cora exclaimed as she started to dance around Piccolo, hiking up her dress a bit above her ankles. Piccolo watched her with confusion as she continued to dance wildly around him, she then moved away and danced a bit away from him. Everyone around began to cheer and clap as Cora danced and other young girls and women danced with her, all of them soon forming one large circle and taking hands, dancing in and out of the circle. Piccolo stepped back as the circle of human females grew to almost forty females all in costume and some not in costume. As the fiddles played faster and faster the circle spun faster, until the music suddenly stopped and all the females fell to the ground laughing.
Shaking his head and smiling slightly at the amusement that had just passed, he walked over to Cora and helped her up onto her feet. He brushed the wet grass and mud off of her dress the best he could, as other men came to rescue their fallen women and young female children that the dance had flung to the earth. Piccolo held Cora in his arms, she felt weak from dancing so hard and just about wasn't able to walk.
"You always seem to find some amazing ways to come into my arms, don't you?" Piccolo smirked with a light chuckle.
"Yes, I guess I do at times, but it's all in fun," she said weakly, dreamly looking up at him.
"Okay, for the rest of the day, no more dancing and if you disobey me on this, we will not go to the festival for three days and be stuck in the hotel," Piccolo added with a stern look at her.
Gulping hard, "Okay, whatever you say, but we don't have to always be in the hotel, we could get a picnic together and just sit in a grassy field and talk and such," just as she finished saying that, the drums picked up again and she couldn't help it once more.
She slinked out of Piccolo wrapped arms around her and with a giggle like a young child she ran towards the end of the festival. Finding a gate she opened it and bolted onto the grassy field, laughing as she ran, feeling the wind upon her face. Piccolo growled as he ran after her, soon he found himself running just a bit too fast and slowed down to a normal 'mortal's' pace, so not to surprise anyone.
"Cora, come back here!" he yelled as he jumped over the fence with ease. 'I can't fly after her, there are just too many people around.' Piccolo said to himself, growling a bit with the disappointment of wanting to fly but not dare allowing himself to do it.
Soon, he found himself close to the edge of a forest, he stopped, barely being hard of breath, he saw Cora run into the forest, moving branches of trees out of her way.
"Why must you do this to me, girl!" Piccolo said, his voice slightly echoing through the forest trees.
Cora stopped for a moment and heard his voice; she smiled like a gitty child and continued to run, almost in a skipping form. She jumped over fallen trees and slightly deep holes in the ground as she ran through the semi thick forest. Piccolo was fairly close behind, he was soon so close and safe away from the festival crowd, he finally was able to fly after her. He zigged and zagged in between the trees with ease as he came closer and closer to catching her. Just as he reached out for her, to grab her shoulder, he hit a tree; hitting it so hard he broke it in two. He lay on the ground slightly groaning, but as he drifted off to darkness, he could still hear Cora running through the forest and laughing as she did. He tried to look up at her from where she had run off to, but only saw a bright blue hazy form instead of Cora and then he went out cold. His body lay on the slightly damp forest floor, still as stone; the small forest animals moved about him like he was another fallen tree.
Part 7:
"First Day At the Festival"
Cora had awakened again on her own and was down stairs eating a big breakfast at the hotel's café, while Piccolo was getting dressed in his dark clothed attire and was waiting for her to return. She returned a few hours later, her stomach groaning a bit as she walked back to the room. Piccolo could easily hear her groan as he knew that sound far too well, it was the sound of upset stomach and did that bug him like crazy the most. He got up and opened the door for her and helped her to the bed to lay down.
"Why did you have to go and do that for now?" Piccolo protested as he sat back down at the table.
"I was hungry and well, I'm not trying to eat more than a Saiya-jin and you know that, but I don't know why I've been eating like this," she replied as she slowly turned on her side.
"I hope you can fit in that dress you bought yesterday."
"I will after my stomach calms down and when it does I'll just do some laps on a track to burn as much off as I can, but for now, I'm going to rest," she said, after that came the loudest and worst belch ever heard by Piccolo's ears, he looked up at her with eyes of surprise and disgust. "Excuse me, sorry about that."
"Do you think it would be wise for me to go out and see what's going on about the festival?" Piccolo asked as he fixed his hood and vale.
"Sure, if you want and see if you can buy a good mask, so you don't have to use that vale the whole time here at the festival," she said as she rolled over, groaning as she did, to get her wallet, she handed him about $300 dollars. "You don't need to exchange the American money for British pounds, but you can if you want. There should be some money exchange places on the grounds of the festival."
"Okay, whatever you say, Cora, and I'll be back in a few hours to check on you," he said.
"Oh, wait, I got the special passes for us, don't forget these," she added as she threw his pass to him. "Wear it around your neck and never take it off and don't loose it," she said as he put the pass strap around his neck and took one of the hotel room keys with him, he walked out the door closing it slowly, so not to wake Cora.
Piccolo quickly made his way out of the hotel building and onto the streets of Dublin. A man walking by him stopped dead in his tracks at what Piccolo was dressed in, he soon smiled at him.
"If you are looking for the Medieval festival, just take this main street to your right and keep going, soon you'll find a sign that says were to go for the festival, it won't take you long," the man said.
"Thank you very much," Piccolo replied as he made his way to the festival.
It wasn't long until he found a very large open field in front of him, a sign over his head saying, Medieval Festival this way. He followed, seeing before him many, many tents in all kinds of colors, flags flying high and proud, jousting arena, archery arena, games and pony rides for the little kids, some Irish dancers practicing outside the grounds on a stage and many more wonderful things lay out before his very eyes.
He walked up to the gate, a man wearing a royal guards outfit stood next to it. "Tickets or passes please?" the man asked, Piccolo showing the pass to him, as the guard scanned it into a machine. "Enjoy your time and you won't be needing to have it rescanned," he said putting a red sticker on the plastic pass. "the sticker tells others that you are already scanned in," he said as Piccolo nodded and walked passed the gate into the festival grounds.
The sun was shinning down on the ground brightly, as a few people started coming onto the grounds for the fun of the Medieval life style and magic of it all. At every turn, there were storytellers, jesters juggling balls and playing magic tricks for the kids, painters making portraits for people on canvas, and there was plenty of merchants to sell their goods and plenty of food to go around. Everyone, almost everyone was in costume for the festival and anything and everything that could be worn at the festival was made in the most perfect detail to the style and time period of the Middle Ages or Renascence period.
Soon, he caught his eye on some masks and headed quickly over to the table were there where displayed. "Are you looking for one in particular?" a woman asked.
"I'll just look for now, I'm waiting for a lady friend of mine to get here and I think she could choose better than I can," he said to the woman with a light smile from behind the vale.
"All right then, if you find anything you like just tell me," the woman said as she went to the other side of another table and began to straighten it.
Piccolo's ears twitched as he could hear way out in the distance, a few miles away, the sound of galloping horses, their hooves carrying their riders, they must have been wearing heavy attire. He turned and looked out in front of him a young boy running and yelling.
"They're coming, make way, make way for the king," the boy cried out running past everyone, as all the people quickly moved out of the way.
Many mounted horses came galloping down the main dirt path, all of them wearing Medieval guard attire, their horses wearing heavy metal sheeted plates on their bodies to protect them and from the very front of this group of riders, the king approached. His steed being solid white, it too wearing metal on it's body to protect it, the royal man wore deep red, with lions on his chest, the crown on his head gold and full of gems, and a red dragon flew proudly on his flag as he rode swiftly past everyone, but he looked back at Piccolo and nodded to him.
"You've been noticed by the King, you are so lucky," the merchant woman said from her booth.
"Who is this King?"
"Of course he isn't a real king, everyone here is just role playing for fun. Here we do our very best to portray the wondrous times of this gone by era. You must be new to this kind of fun, but don't worry, you will learn quickly of what is around you and when you're lady friend gets here, she should be able to explain things better to you than I."
He nodded and went on his way looking about him of the festival some more. He quickly came upon two men atop a large log beam, with staffs in hand ready for a battle. He took his place around the crowd and watched as the men tried their best to keep standing. These two men were quit well build, muscles bulging everywhere and sweat dripping from them. Suddenly one of the men quickly smacked his staff into the other guy's jaw. "Unfair!" the crowed called out as the men took another try this time, staffs hitting against each other with great cracking sounds and the whooshing sounds of the air around the swift movements. Then it got faster, with every blow, until one man finally fell down to the mud below. The one that won the match stood proud and called out and just as he did, the looser came up and grabbed him and pulled him to the mud, both men wrestling to the ground a bit, they soon stopped and laughed at one another of how messy they looked and got up. The winner was awarded his prize of a very large pitcher of ale to drink all to himself. He dove his head in and drank a great amount, he came up for air and belched loudly, everyone laughed and cheered for the man.
'Disgusting,' he said to himself as he made his way from the crowd.
After a while of looking at just about everything around him of the festival, he sat at a bench and waited, he could feel that Cora was coming to the festival soon, so he had no need to go see her again at the hotel room. He looked towards the main gate and there in the purple velvet Medieval dress was Cora, she caught eye of him and ran to him, holding her dress up a bit off the dirt and mud. He got up to greet her, and just as he did, she showed him what she bought.
"I saw the masks right there and I had to get this one for you," she said, holding up a slightly feathered mask, its colors being dark blue, dark green, and black. "Put it on," she said as he very nervously took off his vale. "Look over there," she said pointing behind him. "There be fae here, more the merrier, says I." And sure enough there were people dressed up as fairies and elves of all kinds. "You will be safe here, trust me," she said with a sparkling kind of smile. He sighed and took off the hood; he then took the mask and put it on. "It looks really good on you, it matches your attire well, my lord."
"So, what shall you show me, that you may know more of than I?" Piccolo said in the best way he could of an Irish accent.
"I've kept you waiting way too long, have I?"
"No, not really."
"Well, then, lets see what other kinds of treasures we can find here," she said as she put her arm around his. She looked around a bit, as they walked, her eyes feeling quit large to the site of everything at once coming into view. "Well, you can't very well, test your strength here, they would really freak, you know." Piccolo nodding in reply as he watched a very large muscled man walk up to the mallet and slamming it to the button. The bell rang loudly as the ball hit it, the bell almost about to fall right off the top.
"For a human, that was pretty good, I'd have to say," Piccolo commented, Cora smiling up at him. "Tell, me how was your work out?"
"It was fine, boring to say the least. Everyone must have been here at the festival," she said to him, suddenly she caught her eyes on some Irish dancers up on a stage. She smiled big, from ear to ear as she heard the wonderful and very familiar pounding stepped rhythm of the dancers from River Dance that she had seen a few years back on TV.
"Go on and watch them, I'll catch up with you soon," Piccolo said as he saw her smile, it lighting up his heart from inside, but on the outside he tried to hide his caring love for her, sometimes when he felt he needed to. Cora ran to the stage and found a dry spot to stand and watch the dancers, the show had just started and it was good timing for her, that's for sure.
The sound of pounding; hard black soled shoes on the hard wood floor of the stage excited Cora's heart, causing her heart rate to sore quit high. Her ears rang with the sound of the rhythm as it exploded inside her gullet and all around her body. She felt so alive at that moment that she swore that it was better than a roller coaster than anything in the world. She tapped her feet to the beat as it got louder and louder, the music playing beautifully all around her and everyone else that watched with awe and amazement of the dancer's talents. Piccolo soon found the beat of the rhythm inviting and so interesting, after all, he had never seen some many wonderful things on such a simple and tiny seeming planet.
Once the first song ended, almost as soon as it had started, things calmed down and Cora's heart finally relaxed, but not as soon as it had, she sensed Piccolo very near. She turned around, seeing him in the furthest back row of spectators, his very tall form making it very easy for her to find him. She smiled at him lightly and motioned for him to come over, he nodded and walked over. She looked up at him like a child looking at her father, as the music played, fiddles playing perfectly as the drums began.
"Oh, hell! I can't help it!" Cora exclaimed as she started to dance around Piccolo, hiking up her dress a bit above her ankles. Piccolo watched her with confusion as she continued to dance wildly around him, she then moved away and danced a bit away from him. Everyone around began to cheer and clap as Cora danced and other young girls and women danced with her, all of them soon forming one large circle and taking hands, dancing in and out of the circle. Piccolo stepped back as the circle of human females grew to almost forty females all in costume and some not in costume. As the fiddles played faster and faster the circle spun faster, until the music suddenly stopped and all the females fell to the ground laughing.
Shaking his head and smiling slightly at the amusement that had just passed, he walked over to Cora and helped her up onto her feet. He brushed the wet grass and mud off of her dress the best he could, as other men came to rescue their fallen women and young female children that the dance had flung to the earth. Piccolo held Cora in his arms, she felt weak from dancing so hard and just about wasn't able to walk.
"You always seem to find some amazing ways to come into my arms, don't you?" Piccolo smirked with a light chuckle.
"Yes, I guess I do at times, but it's all in fun," she said weakly, dreamly looking up at him.
"Okay, for the rest of the day, no more dancing and if you disobey me on this, we will not go to the festival for three days and be stuck in the hotel," Piccolo added with a stern look at her.
Gulping hard, "Okay, whatever you say, but we don't have to always be in the hotel, we could get a picnic together and just sit in a grassy field and talk and such," just as she finished saying that, the drums picked up again and she couldn't help it once more.
She slinked out of Piccolo wrapped arms around her and with a giggle like a young child she ran towards the end of the festival. Finding a gate she opened it and bolted onto the grassy field, laughing as she ran, feeling the wind upon her face. Piccolo growled as he ran after her, soon he found himself running just a bit too fast and slowed down to a normal 'mortal's' pace, so not to surprise anyone.
"Cora, come back here!" he yelled as he jumped over the fence with ease. 'I can't fly after her, there are just too many people around.' Piccolo said to himself, growling a bit with the disappointment of wanting to fly but not dare allowing himself to do it.
Soon, he found himself close to the edge of a forest, he stopped, barely being hard of breath, he saw Cora run into the forest, moving branches of trees out of her way.
"Why must you do this to me, girl!" Piccolo said, his voice slightly echoing through the forest trees.
Cora stopped for a moment and heard his voice; she smiled like a gitty child and continued to run, almost in a skipping form. She jumped over fallen trees and slightly deep holes in the ground as she ran through the semi thick forest. Piccolo was fairly close behind, he was soon so close and safe away from the festival crowd, he finally was able to fly after her. He zigged and zagged in between the trees with ease as he came closer and closer to catching her. Just as he reached out for her, to grab her shoulder, he hit a tree; hitting it so hard he broke it in two. He lay on the ground slightly groaning, but as he drifted off to darkness, he could still hear Cora running through the forest and laughing as she did. He tried to look up at her from where she had run off to, but only saw a bright blue hazy form instead of Cora and then he went out cold. His body lay on the slightly damp forest floor, still as stone; the small forest animals moved about him like he was another fallen tree.
